Love Thy Neighbour Remembered

I love YouTube and can never be bored because of the option to reminisce without laying out cash for its contents. From music, film, TV shows and just fun video’s there is always something to watch.

Today after seeing, Rudolph Walker who plays Patrick Trueman in EastEnders on breakfast this morning it reminded me of a TV show he was in back in the 1970s so I hit YouTube to check out what I could find.

The show I am talking of is ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ a hugely popular comedy sitcom from back in the 1970s but so not politically correct in dealing and handling on the subject of race. The series revolved around a white working class couple who have to come to terms with their new neighbours who are black.

Eddie Booth played by Jack Smethurst is a white socialist and union official whose whole world is turned on its head when Bill and Barbie Reynolds move in next door. His temper is not subdued when he finds out Bill is a new workmate. Joan Booth (Kate Williams) Eddie’s wife does not share her husband’s opinion of their black neighbours, and becomes good friends with Barbie. Bill also gets along with Eddie’s wife and has for Eddie with all is bigoted views secretly fancies the pants of Barbie.

It’s not just at home and work Eddie and Bill lock heads as Bill was also a member of the workingman’s club they both frequent. To top it off he was Conservative just as bad as being black in Eddie’s book. Whenever Eddie tries to outdo him, Bill ends up having the last laugh. Like one I watch early where they are both after a bedroom suite and no matter how sneak Eddie was Bill was in foot ahead and finally got the suite. The writers claimed that each episode included both anti-white and anti-black sentiment.

I had a good afternoon catching up with the series and you can see why it wouldn’t be well received today and that’s why it is not re-shown on channel’s like UK Gold which rehashes old British comedies from the 1970s.